It so happened that it was my birthday when we were in Almaty. I wasn't planning on any big celebration since the trip itself was already a celebration in my mind. I was completely caught by surprise when we stepped in our room at the Saltanat to first notice a what I thought was a larger room than what I had booked. I was then perplexed as to why there was a chilled bottle of champange on the desk in the room. Lydia laughed immediately when I jokingly asked if the champange was on the house.

hmm.. what's the champange doing there?

Imagine my shock when I went up close to the desk and saw the note up-front:

Lydia had apparently contacted the hotel ahead of time and arranged all of this! This was the best birthday surprise ever. Totally unexpected and was one of the highlights of our trip. How many can say that they celebrated their birthday with a surprise in Almaty :)

If that wasn't enough, the hotel decided to throw in another surprise (which Lydia herself wasn't expecting). About 15 minutes after we arrived in the room, we heard a knock on the door and in comes a trolley with the birthday cake!

Thanks to my amazing wife for the surprise and to the staff at the Saltanat hotel that made this such a memorable birthday! Did I forget to mention the upgrades, champange, cake, etc were all complimentary?